After The Crusade
by TheComicNerd
Summary: On the night the memorial was unveiled and the remaining team members were made official Avengers, something happened. A girl came back in time, finding Billy, Teddy, and Tommy, and bringing them to the future to help her save mutant kind from the dystopian society America becomes. A society in which all mutants are considered government property and experimented on like Tommy.
1. Prologue

Hey, so I know a lot of people don't like the new run of the Young Avengers. I don't like the new run, that's for sure. the only good thing about it is Billy's new costume, and that's it. So I thought I'd write what should happen after 'Children's Crusade.' Please don't get mad that there are OCs in this, or about how strange this might get, or even angry about some of the things I'm gonna do to the characters. Okay? Thank you.

Oh, and warning, there is discussion of some LGBT issues in this, since one of the OCs belongs to the community. Don't like, don't read!

* * *

They stood there and silently looked on at the memorial statue of Stature and the other fallen heroes, all sorts of emotions washing over the group; a sort of melancholia flowed among the group, like a distilled solution of all the many emotions they felt. And yet everything felt warm, like a happiness could finally be within grasp. All this was felt as they looked on at the memorial, and as the new title of Avenger echoed through their minds.

After the deaths of Cassie and Vision, the team had disbanded, and Billy had fallen into a crippling depression. He had barely moved, barely ate or slept, lost wait, neglected himself... much longer, and he probably would have been found dead in his window sill. With these new events unfolding, his boyfriend's proposal, the unveiling of his late-friends' memorial, and being named official Avengers, it was like he was caught from his free fall and was now being lifted back up to stand at the top of the world.

"Billy...?" asked Tommy, looking at his twin's almost mesmerized face with concern. "Are you..."

"I'm okay," breathed Billy, gripping his boyfriend's hand. "For the first time in a long time, I think I'm okay."

The mage looked over at his boyfriend who gripped his hand and smiled.

"We're definitely okay," said Teddy, smiling at his fiance and his future sorta-brother-in-law.

There was another moment of silence, the splendid solemness of the occasion feeling strangely uplifting, and none wanted to shatter it. So they looked on at the memorial, the thing which symbolized the closure of their mourning. The night seemed full of life, like it enclosed them in their own little world. The type of night that makes you feel like you've woken up for the first time in your life.

But despite this feeling of elation, the silence had to be broken, and finally Billy, allowing himself to finally open up to the world again, asked with watery eyes, "so what do we do now?"

...And there was a blinding pillar of smoke, and a loud bang, and the feeling of the earth shaking, and all eyes turned in the same direction, staring at the same thing as they were shrouded in smoke.

This goes to show, that young wizard's shouldn't ask such things.

* * *

I really hope that you enjoyed this little prologue. Please, let me hear your opinions. I love criticism, it helps me improve my writing. Again, for those who don't like OCs, this story is not for you! Although the story is mostly about Billy, Teddy, and Tommy, and even Kate (although she plays more of a supporting role) because this is a new adventure, there will be new characters!


	2. A Dark Future

Smoke. Everywhere smoke; it was thick and suffocating and rancid, the smell immediately filling one's lungs with a scent so putrid it was enough to make one vomit. And it was everywhere, so thick and impossible to see through that it was like the whole world went black wherever it spread.

Billy, Teddy, Tommy, And Kate gasped and choked, thrashing about blindly, and all else who were there backed up, barely escaping the billowing cloud which seemed to be slowly spreading from the memorial itself. But the Young Avengers couldn't find their way out, they were trapped within the putrid cloud and it only seemed to thicken the more they breathed it in.

Slowly it rose like a small mushroom cloud, slowly it spread and seemed to replace the world itself with darkness within its ungraspable depths.

"T... Tommy!" coughed Kate as she grasped for a hand to hold, stumbling on her knees and searching blindly as the smoke burned her eyes.

"Over here!" yelled Tommy before falling into a coughing fit of his own, trying to make his way to her voice, while still keeping his ears open for Billy and Teddy. "Billy!" Cough. "Teddy!" he cried, the taste of the smoke coating his mouth and throat as he called out to them.

But the smoke only became thicker and thicker, as all traces of light seemed to be sucked away like a vacuum.

But then from out of the smoke came a blinding light, piercing through it like a beacon, and then it broadened in it's intensity and brightness until it seemed to come from all directions at once. And then a loud noise, like a giant engine revving, came and went and came and went as a rush of wind came over the group, so loud it was deafening. The noise was maddening, the volume of it so high it would burst ear drums if it were any louder. It was so loud that the Young Avengers couldn't even hear themselves scream.

The blinding white light blanked out the world but the smoke remained and continued to suffocate and choke, the thick vapors invisibly white within the blinding light which stained the immediate world from black to white.

Teddy had thought they were finally dead, as he stumbled about in the blinding lightness and lung coating smoke, unable to cry from pain as he found he couldn't even open his eyes because it was just too painful.

The Young Avengers trembled as it felt as though the earth was shaking beneath their feet. And mixed with the choking smoke, deafening engine roar, and blinding light, they thought that the world just might be coming to an end.

It ended, after an eternity of minutes, the light focused into a single beam, the smoke rushed back to the place where it came from, and the noise ceased so suddenly, that it left one's ears ringing. The smoke was sucked away so fast, and the light extinguished so suddenly, that the world was blurry all around.

The fresh air revived the youths, and Billy slowly sat up, his head pounding. Everything ached, nothing was clear. The fuzzy images before his eyes, of the memorial, the thing before it, the trees and lights, it was all blended together into one big blur.

"Wha... what?" he gasped out, finding it hard to hold himself up after what he had just been through.

"Billy?" whispered Kate, who was lying on her stomach and coughing, her eyes pink and watery from the smoke. "Tommy?"

The whole world seemed dark and hazzy, unstable, like it could fall away suddenly, and fragile. Billy had grasped Kate's hand to comfort her, but started to look around for his boyfriend from where he sat, even though he couldn't focus his eyes and everything seemed to pound around in his head like an earthquake in his brain.

Nothing made sense. Smoke, light, shaking... and now a blur. Blurriness that was purely nauseating. But Billy tried to fight it, wanted to force himself to focus so he could get a bearing on the situation. Slowly he got to his feet, but found himself wobbling back and fourth, his legs feeling like jelly. After staggering for a few minutes, he tried to reach down and help Kate get to her feet, but she cried when he tried to pull her up, and started to gag, and so he left her to it, not wanting to force her.

As the young mage staggered forward, he became aware of the outline of a large round object in front of where the memorial was supposed to be, although everything in sight seemed pretty smushed together still, and the colors made no since, he was sure there was something in front of the statue that wasn't there before.

Something round and large, something... thump!

While trying to get to the thing that was now blocking the memorial, Billy had bumped into Teddy, who was standing stock-still and seemed completely transfixed as he stared at the albeit fuzzy sight before him.

However, Teddy turned when Billy had bumped into him, and was now on his knees trying to help his boyfriend to his feet. Offing the mage an unsteady hand, he slowly pulled him into an upright sitting position, and they looked into each others' faces for a moment, despite everything still seeming out of focus.

"Teddy?" asked Billy, trying to support himself on his boyfriend's arm, wanting desperately to get up and get to that thing that had appeared in front of the memorial. Whatever it was it had to go, and he was going to be the one to make it leave.

Slowly he pulled himself up and tried to stand, but it felt like the throbbing in his head was pulling him back down onto the ground. Finally he got to his feet though, Teddy steadying him as he tried to walk toward the object, which was becoming clearer and more focused each waking moment.

The thing, was an elongated metal oval, the point of which was facing them. It was as large as an SUV, and as the world became more clear, it became obvious the thing was made from some metal alloid that hadn't been discovered yet, seeing as how it's surface seemed to be both pale brass and powdery green at the same time.

Billy stared at the thing as if both mesmerized and scared, but still too stunned to move, to act. Teddy felt the same way, his mouth hanging open even as he rubbed his aching temples as his hearing repaired itself.

Suddenly a hand grabbed Billy's shoulder, but before he could even yelp the mage turned around to see that it was his brother, supporting a limping Kate Bishop under the arm. Kate gave him a smile but then looked up at the strange object before them which seemed to have no doors or even evidence of where a door would be, or even evidence of engines.

They all stared, as if waiting, knowing something had to happen next, because it always does. But even this tense silence had to end, and finally Kate, after swallowing hard, whispered, "so what is it?"

"Shhhh!" whispered Billy, elbowing her in the ribs. "Just wait. Last time someone asked a question, this thing came here. Now let's not provoke the universe anymore than it needs to be."

"Billy, the last one of us to ask a question was you," Tommy pointed out, only slightly obnoxiously, pulling Kate close to himself and putting his hand over the spot on her torso where Billy had elbowed her, grinning slightly as she swatted his hand away.

"Not now To-" but before Billy could say another word the ship emitted a loud hissing noise and steam started to jet from a crack which slowly opened at the front, until the entire top half of the front was wide open.

"Ahoy!" they head someone inside say, and as the steam begun to clear they saw the form of a human being in the cockpit of the ship, standing up and waving.

Teddy couldn't help but raise his eyebrows slightly at this, hoping with all his might that this wasn't a Skrull thing. The others couldn't form a single coherent thought, meanwhile.

"What year is this?!" the person called, more clearly this time, and it was obvious now this person was a girl, finally visible as the steam had evaporated completely, although her face was hidden by the shadow of the roof of her ship. Standing up with one foot on the outside of the ship and the other inside it, she leaned to the side to look them over, as if inspecting them. "Please, is this the-"

"Freeze!" said someone from far off, and the Young Avengers and the girl both turned, the girl putting her hands up in the air at the sight of the people coming toward them.

* * *

A wooden chair pulled up to a wooden table, a mug of strong coffee clutched like a lifeline, a room full of nervous eyes watching suspiciously... this and many other elements made up the atmosphere within the Avengers Mansion. The girl quietly sipped her coffee, knowing that with her every movement they assumed that she would spring certain death on them. Hilarious.

Looking up as the Young Avengers were finally allowed into the room, she smiled. She had refused to talk until they were allowed in; she had only opened her mouth to complain of a caffeine headache and ask if there was any coffee. But now that the Young Avengers... or real Avengers now, just a younger generation of them, were allowed in the room, she could finally talk.

The faces surrounding her were those of the familiar Avengers, Captain America, Iron Man, Hawkeye, Black Widow, and a few others. She Hulk was there, as well as Doctor Strange, Luke Cage, and even Jessica Jones.

"Hey Jewel," said the girl with a happy smirk on her face. The girl had brunette hair and bright green eyes, and her skin was milky white. On her right shoulder, was a tattoo of a tree transcending into blackbirds flying in all directions. Her features were sharp, beautiful, but strange. Her cheekbones were high, but her nose was just the right shape to give the impression that she was part deer, flared out ever so slightly at the nostrils, yet wide and angular at the front. The angle of her jaw only helped accentuate this, and her pearly teeth seemed to be meant for laughing and smiling. She wore a small pair of square lensed glasses at the edge of her nose, and kept her hair short, barely six inches long with a folded black bandanna wrapped around her head to keep her bangs out of her eyes. The whites of her eyes were larger than most peoples', giving her a perpetually surprised look, or at least they would, if she didn't keep them half closed all the time.

The girl looked around at all of these people and grinned, sipping her coffee daintily and smiling. "It seems when a strange craft lands in front of the Avengers' Mansion, every Avenger has to show up. Not necessary."

"Not necessary?" asked Tony Stark, who wasn't currently wearing the armor. "That thing you showed up in blasted out half the windows on this building."

"Send me the bill then," sighed the girl, chuckling a little at the disgusted look Tony Stark was giving her, obviously enjoying how she got under his skin. "Ah, Cap, I bet you wanna know what I'm doing here. And now that the people I've come to talk to are here, we can get down to business." She said this with a mini salute to the Captain and a nod in the direction of the Young Avengers, as if they were old friends of her's.

"Well, aren't you in control of the situation," muttered Stark, in an almost un-stark like air.

To this the girl sighed, giving Stark a look that just said 'well of course,' raising one of her short, rectangular eyebrows like that was exactly what it was put on her face to do.

"Actually, first we wanted to know your name, miss," put in Captain America, to whom the girl turned to and looked at pleasantly.

"My name," she begun, looking around at the Young Avengers while still addressing Captain America, "is Alexandra, although I won't give you my last name. My code name, however, is Tempes Domina, or 'Time Mistress,' if you will."

"I knew it," sighed Stark, looking at the girl an absolutely exasperated look. "Time travel. That thing that keeps creeping up on us and messing up our lives." And then after a pause in which he ran his fingers over his goatee, he looked at the girl again and said, "look, why do you people have to keep messing up the time stream. It always results in some sort of time paradox and everybody having to scramble to save reality and-"

-"it won't happen that way this time, Mr Stark, as long as everything goes according to plan. And so far, it has, right down to the strength of the coffee you've given me," said Alex. "And I know how you all view time travel, but I need help, otherwise the horrors will continue."

At this she looked up at all in the room with a look of desperation in her eyes. "Please, just listen to me. If you don't wanna help, I'll go back. It won't stop, but I'll go back."

She could feel the eyes of the room boring into her like a bunch of nasty little drills that were trying to crack open her cranium, get into her brain, slice through and dig around in the stuff that makes her herself, get into her very soul...

"What's happening?"

Alexandra didn't even have to look up from her coffee, which she was now chugging, to know who had said that. "Tommy, remember where you were when the Young Avengers came for you? Imagine that being the entire future for all of mutant kind."

At this she set her coffee cup down, hard enough to make a loud noise to break the silence which had enveloped the room at her words. All of the Avengers, current and former, were at the edge of there seats, She Hulk starring at Tommy and Dr. Strange raising an eyebrow to such claims of knowledge of the time stream. "Young mutant, speedster, who once lived a life of more suffering than any of these people can possibly imagine, I know your past and your future. You were once kind and quiet, but what they did to you, how you're now a semi-sociopath. Trying as you might to feel the empathy you know you need to feel, sometimes succeeding, even for the people who don't deserve such empathy... Imagine what you would have become if you had stayed there much longer."

Tommy was tense all over and staring at the girl with wide eyes, a look of fear and loathing written on his face, but not for her. Instead there was a question there for her. He was trembling all over, his mouth open, running his hands through his hair repeatedly. "I know what I would be. Is that what happened...?" He barely managed to get the words out, his brother hesitating to touch him, unsure of whether or not a steadying hand was wanted.

"I come from the year 4000," said the girl, leaning back and looking sadly into her cup, regretting chugging it.

"So you're from two-thousand years in the future?" asked Captain America, to which Alex nodded, politely reframing from making jokes about how he's finally learned how to add, since he had been polite to her the entire time.

"Yup, and in that time, the mutant population rebuilds, while the world starts running out of natural resources. So I suppose you could say that our time gives a new meaning to the term 'human resources.'"

"I don't understand what you mean," said Captain America, resting his head on his fists as he tried to wrap his mind around what she was telling them of the future.

"It's really quite simple. The world is running out of resources, and most of the money that should have gone into harvesting asteroids instead went to fighting World War III, which went on for about a hundred years or so," said Alex, pretending to be non-nonchalant about a hundred year war. "Anyway, so that wastes up so much money, and so much time, and so many valuable resources, that the fact that America lost is kinda scary. So America isn't allowed weapons of mass destruction anymore, at least not in the bomb or biological variety. So, America turned to the next best thing: living weapons."

At the words Tommy actually let out a squeak. None of them had ever heard a noise like this come out of him, but when they turned and looked at him, he seemed so pale, and yet there was a fire about him, like he was ready to jump up and go rip some scientists to pieces, not caring who or what got in his way. "What's your plan?" he whispered, looking at Alex with caution.

"I'll get to that," she said sweetly, with complete understanding between her and Tommy now, the way they were locking eyes, it was obvious there was a sense of unity between them now. Kate was watching her warily, unsure of her, watching as she lifted her hair in an almost unnoticeable fashion, showing slight scares, and watching as Tommy rubbed the same places on the sides of his head.

Her stomach lurched at the thought of what Tommy had gone through, but even worse, what he was thinking he had to do now.

"The thing is, there's just so many mutants in America. The government is building an army, so they're now into illegally trafficking mutants into the country from other places. Mostly Canada and Mexico, although if their spies find someone with valuable abilities, they'll take measures to get them even if they're being kept in some obscure village in Finland. Strangest I've seen is one little girl all the way from North Korea, from a prison camp. She could blow up objects with her mind. They're ruthless. They see mutants as things, tools to use to retake their territory they claimed during the war."

"I can't believe this is what my country will come to," sighed Captain America, as if in pain.

"I'm sorry, and trust me, I've searched alternate timelines, trust me when I say this is the best thing that happens to America in any possible timeline in this dimension. Now in other dimensions, it does better, in most. But don't despair," she said, reaching out and touching Cap's hand. "If my plan works, it can be restored to what it once was. My groups motto is, "first MRC, tomorrow, all of democracy."

"MRC?" asked Stark, who hadn't spoken in a while because he realized getting on the wrong foot with this girl was probably not the best idea, especially with so many Avengers there.

"Mutant Research Central. It's what's becomes of Manhattan; the entire island converted into a place for conducting research, housing mutant research subjects as well as the scientists, everyone who works in the labs, factories producing lab supplies, warehouses to store lab supplies... this entire island, and much of the surrounding mainland, has been converted for these purposes, although all mutants are kept on the island itself for security reasons."

"Every mutant in America?" asked Tommy, still looking dazed, angry, and even sick. Billy had long since put a hand on his shoulder to steady him, but he didn't even seem aware of it.

"Yes Tommy, except for the one's my group and I have freed. unfortunately, all of us except three, including myself, have been captured. I need your help, Young Avengers." She said this with a pleading look on her face, but with a steady, unfaltering voice.

"Our help?" asked Teddy, who had no clue what to say or how to contribute up to this point, although his curiosity had certainly been peaked the entire time.

"Yeah, why do you need there help?" asked Stark, looking over at Teddy like he had just asked the million dollar question. "Honestly, I don't see how messing with the time stream will help any. It's probably better to"-

-"Look, I've been to THOUSANDS of possible futures, in which I and my team try everything else, I've been to futures where I get the Fantastic Four killed, all of the heroes I bring to help the cause... I have been to so many different possible futures, that for a while, I wanted to kill myself, because it all looked so bleak, all of them looked the exact same. Until I found the ONE where I succeed. And it's because of the help I get from Tommy, Billy, and Teddy. If I don't take them, all of the mutants in America will become living weapons. Many are already."

"And why are we so special?" asked Kate, raising an eyebrow. "or at least them. You didn't mention me."

"Oh Kate," sighed Alex, looking down. "In the possible future in which I bring you, you die. But if you stay here, I can send rescues back here to the past where they'll be safe, and you can help them here. That's how you help. I've checked.

Kate looked away, thinking over these things.

"But I don't understand something," said another voice, this time Luke Cage. "Are you a mutant, or a time traveler, or what?"

"Ha, I've been asked that before. I'm both, actually. My power is that I have a constant, manipulateable connection to the time stream. I'm able to jump a few seconds threw time without a machine so that it seems that I'm teleporting, when really I'm jumping to the place in time I will be a few seconds from when I leap. It's really useful in battle. The time machine my boyfriend built by using some of my DNA and melding it into a nuclear driven suspension engine which makes it always rest within the time stream, but always spring loaded, so it can jump from one point in time to another, and even alternate timelines. While in watch mode, you can witness the timelines take place without aging or being visible or have any kind of impact on the point in time. I even have these bracelets which keep me connected to it's core to keep me in mode with it." With this she held up her hands and showed them the metal bracelets before continuing, "and in real mode, well, guess which one I'm currently using."

"Amazing," was all Dr. Strange could say, as he looked down at the girl from the place in the middle of the room where he was floating. "But of course you do realize we must make sure that you're not lying to use."

At this there was general ascension, as the Sorcerer slowly floated over to where Alex was seated. But before he could touch her face to read her mind, Tommy stood up.

"Stop, I believe her. She's not lying, she couldn't be," he knew what she'd been through, her nearly invisible scares showed him her past. She smiled at him even as she was forced to look up into the eyes of Dr. Strange.

"Quiet, let him," she said, and then clenched her teeth as for a split second it felt as though her face was being torn into, and her head felt like it was going to explode, and then she was aware of the room again. Dr. Strange was holding his eyes and clutching the side of he table, and both felt a sharp echo of pain still running through their heads.

"She's not lying," he said simply, looking up at the girl in fear, knowing the things she'd seen and done and... been through, had done to her, where horrors, truly the stuff of horror.

"Thank you," she said, putting a hand on his shoulder. And then turning to the Young Avengers, she said. "I did find one other alternate time line, in which only Tommy comes, and he's successful, but he dies." her words seemed to linger in the air like a sweet mixture of a threat and a promise, one that seemed to entice like a siren, but warned like the tolling of a bell.

"I don't care," said Tommy, "I'll go."

Their eyes locked, but then Alex's turned toward the others, and Tommy turned to Kate and took her hand, unsure of what to say.

"If my brother is going, then so am I," said Billy, looking mortified and yet strangely like he was standing on his toes, ready to leap.

"That means me to," said Teddy, putting his arm around his fiance, looking at Alex as if to ask what she had done to them.

"Good, that's just what I wanted to hear."


End file.
